1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure is generally directed to children's car seats and safety seats, and more particularly to a tensioning device that is mechanically activated upon an impact event to apply tension to the shoulder straps of the seat harness system.
2. Description of Related Art
Child car seats and safety seats are known in the art. The typical seat of this type has a plastic shell that defines the child seat. These types of seats are provided with a dedicated harness system to secure the child seat occupant in the seat. The child seat is anchored to a dedicated vehicle seat in a vehicle. Sometimes, the child seat is provided with fixed anchor belts and the vehicle is provided with fixed anchor points. The anchor belts are connected to the fixed anchor points to anchor the child seat in place on the vehicle seat. However, often a child safety seat is secured in place by using the vehicle's own safety harness system. During a crash event, the safety seat is held in place by the anchoring belts, whether the vehicle belts are used or dedicated anchor belts are used.
These types of child safety seats are thus held fast to the vehicle seat during the impact event. The child seat occupant on the other hand tends to accelerate away from the seating surface of the child safety seat and is held in place only by the dedicated safety harness provided on the child safety seat. Forward head excursion occurs during the crash event, which is an undesirable consequence of such an impact event. Head excursion and the consequences suffered from same can be magnified by forward excursion of the seat occupant's body relative to the seating surface of the child safety seat. Anything that can be done to minimize forward head excursion, including reducing forward body excursion, can reduce the degree of trauma and injury that might otherwise be suffered by the child during a crash or impact event.